Best answer

Usually problems with “extended characters” are due to text encoding getting mixed up somewhere. A common example is trying to export a CSV file from Excel. The predominant standard for text encoding on the web is “Unicode”, or UTF-8. This is how your CSV would be expected to be encoded — but the spreadsheet software Excel uses a different encoding, leading to misinterpreted characters and “gibberish” appearing in your contact data.

A couple rules of thumb for steering clear of any text encoding issues:

If using Microsoft Excel and you want to upload a file to SurveyGizmo, save your files as XLS whenever possible. This will help our software interpret the encoding correctly.

If using Microsoft Excel and you want to download a file from SurveyGizmo, download the XLS version whenever possible. This will help your software interpret the encoding correctly.

If using other spreadsheet software such as OpenOffice/LibreOffice, use the CSV file type with UTF-8 encoding. When downloading files, select the CSV option, and open it with UTF-8 encoding. This should ensure both parties can interpret the encoding correctly.